ACEM is pleased to invite Professor Tom Calma AO to present the Foundation Lecture at the ASM. The Foundation Lecture is a public lecture and is open to members, general public and conference participants.

Please note that registration is required to attend this complimentary lecture.

Prof Calma is an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan (Koong ara kun) tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja (Ee wad ja) tribal group whose traditional lands are south west of Darwin and on the Cobourg Peninsula in the Northern Territory of Australia, respectively. He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, community, state, national and international level and worked in the public sector for over 45 years and is currently on a number of boards and committees focussing on rural and remote Australia, health, education, justice reinvestment, research, leadership, reconciliation and economic development.

Prof Calma was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2004 to 2010. He also served as Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2004 until 2009.

Through his 2005 Social Justice Report, Prof Calma called for the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to be closed within a generation and advocated embedding a social determinants philosophy into public policy around health, education and employment in order to address Indigenous inequality gaps. This spearheaded the Close the Gap for Indigenous Health Equality Campaign resulting in COAG’s Closing the Gap response in December 2007.

Prof Calma has since 2010 held the position of National Coordinator Tackling Indigenous Smoking (0.5) and he was appointed a Professor (0.5) at the University of Sydney Medical School from 1 January 2015 to perform the role of Chair and Patron of the Poche Indigenous Health Network.

He has many awards including being named by Australian Doctor Magazine (2010) as one of the50 Most Influential People in medicine in Australia, Indigenous Allied Health Australia’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2014 in recognition of his lifelong dedication to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians and the Public Health Association of Australia’s pre-eminent Sidney Sax Public Health Medal (2015) for notable contribution to the protection and promotion of public health, advancing community awareness of public health measures and advancing the ideals and practice of equity in the provision of health care.

On 30 June 2016 in Canberra The Honourable John Berry, Ambassador of the United States of American to Australia, presented Professor Calma with a US Flag that was flown over the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial in Washington DC in recognition of his “leadership in promoting equality, social tolerance and youth advancement.”

In May 2017 Prof Calma was one of three Indigenous Australian’s honoured by Australia Post in the 2017 Legends Commemorative Stamp series and in May 2018 he was inducted into the ACT Honour Walk.

Professor Calma will deliver the ACEM Foundation Lecture where he will discuss the challenges and achievements in Indigenous health focusing on social and cultural determinants, smoking, mental health and suicide prevention. To Close the Gap we must open our minds and hearts and empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to take on the challenges that confront them and celebrate success.